


Viral Integration

by SuburbanSun



Category: Mad Men
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Digital Marketing Agency AU, Gen, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21904186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuburbanSun/pseuds/SuburbanSun
Summary: “Theclientwants a viral social post during the game," Peggy said. "Theclientdoesn’t understand that you can’t justmakesomething go viral.”Stan chuckled around the mouth of his beer bottle, and the sound made Peggy scowl. “Sure ya can. Worked for Tostitos last year.”
Relationships: Don Draper & Peggy Olson, Peggy Olson & Stan Rizzo
Comments: 22
Kudos: 45
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Viral Integration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pallanwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pallanwen/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, Pallanwen!

Peggy slumped in her chair, her gaze flitting to the time at the top of her Macbook screen. Almost 8:30, and on a Sunday no less. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Digital was the last place she wanted to be.

She cracked her neck, thought about how she should raise up her standing desk for awhile, then rejected the idea. If she had to be in the office on a chilly February Sunday night, she was at least going to sit comfortably.

“Want another beer?” Stan asked, already holding a bottle out to her, a local craft brew still cold from the beer fridge. She took it with a small smile, though she grimaced as she took a sip. Why was everything so hoppy all the time these days?

“I don’t understand why we’re here,” she muttered, setting the beer down beside her keyboard. “Don’t we all have better things we could be doing with our weekend?”

“Speak for yourself,” Stan said, leaning back in his chair at the desk next to hers and taking a long slug of his beer. They’d gotten rid of the walls between cubes six months earlier to fit more workstations in the open-plan office— Roger’s orders— so she could see that he had reddit open on his screen instead of InDesign. He spared her a glance. “What, you got a hot date? Big Super Bowl party to go to?”

She frowned. “I might. I could.”

“You don’t even like football.”

“I know.”

“The client wants us here, so we’re here.”

“The _client_ wants a viral social post during the game. The _client_ doesn’t understand that you can’t just _make_ something go viral.”

Stan chuckled around the mouth of his beer bottle, and the sound made Peggy scowl. “Sure ya can. Worked for Tostitos last year.”

She rolled her eyes. “Nothing’s happening in this game, anyway.” She gestured at the TV mounted in the corner of the office, at the lopsided score. “The Patriots are going to win. Katy Perry didn’t even do anything weird this year during the halftime show. I’m going to talk to Don.”

“Go get ‘em, Social Media Guru,” he said with a smirk, tipping his beer in a salute as she made for Don’s corner office. Peggy huffed. She knew she shouldn’t have accepted Stan's invitation to connect on LinkedIn. He’d been making fun of her profile summary for weeks.

“Come in,” Don said absentmindedly when she rapped on the doorjamb. He looked up at her from behind his multiple screens. “Peggy.”

“Are you watching the game?” He had his own TV mounted on the wall, several inches bigger than the ones that lined the outer office, but it was turned off.

Don shrugged dismissively. “Patriots are going to win.”

“I know that.”

“Did you need something?”

She stood there for a second, then tilted her chin up and sighed.

“Q’doba is expecting a viral social moment tonight. Twitter, Instagram, or Instagram Stories.”

He pushed his chair back from his desk and clicked out of whatever he’d been looking at on his center screen, frowning. “Stories disappear in 24 hours. Is that really the kind of message they want associated with their brand? Something disposable?”

Peggy shrugged one shoulder. “Doesn’t matter. It’s what they asked for.”

“What’s the ROI on Stories, anyway?”

“There is none. It’s branding.”

Don sighed, spinning around in his chair to face the window for a long moment, and Peggy wondered if she should just go back to her desk and keep monitoring their mentions. Maybe she could quote tweet another brand, generate a few engagements.

Finally, Don spoke up, his voice dreamy as he gazed out onto the Manhattan street below. “The best viral moments make someone feel something. Could be nihilism, cringe, recognition, nostalgia. It’s not about metrics. It’s not about reach, or impressions, either. It’s about the way someone scrolling their iPhone on the subway feels. The way the busy mom checking Facebook before picking her kids up from school feels when she sees herself on that screen. There’s no KPI for that. Virality can’t be manufactured. It can’t be created from nothing. It has to start with a feeling.”

When she was sure he wasn’t going to elaborate any further, she crossed her arms over her chest. “So, what are you saying we should do?”

“Hmm?” He turned back in his chair as if he’d forgotten she was there. “Oh. I don’t know, Peggy, have you checked the hashtag? Do your job.”

She could tell when she was being dismissed. She grit her teeth as she walked out of his office and back to the corner she shared with Stan and the rest of the hybrid paid media/creative team. None of _them_ had had to come into the office on the weekend, of course, because none of _them_ had second-tier fast-casual burrito restaurant clients demanding relevance on Super Bowl Sunday.

“So? How’d it go?” Stan sing-songed as she plopped down in her chair.

She leaned forward to let her head drop against the desk, then sat up straighter and reached for her beer. It was still relatively cold, at least. Thank goodness for small favors.

“That bad, huh? Okay, I’ll get more supplies,” Stan said, already up and rounding the rarely-used ping-pong table on his way to the frequently-used beer fridge. “Hey, you check the hashtag?” he called out over his shoulder, and Peggy groaned.

Later, in the fourth quarter, a bad call by a ref named Kenny Sosa resulted in the negating of a Bengals touchdown that would have tied up the game.

Peggy didn't think it was her best work. In fact, as she crawled into bed late that night with a minor buzz from the high-gravity IPAs Stan had kept bringing her, she wondered what the point of any of it was. But she also knew her tweet would have a place of prominence on the Business Insider roundup the next morning, maybe AdAge too. The client would be happy enough.

She could sleep in a little on Monday, she decided.


End file.
